Oscar-winning acting legend (and go-to man for stentorian narration) Morgan Freeman has signed on to join the cast of Universal Pictures’ Oblivion, the upcoming epic sci-fi adventure from Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski.

The film, based on a comic book series created by Kosinski for Radical Publishing, takes place in a future where the surface of Earth has become too irradiated and infested by hostile aliens known as Scavengers to be inhabited by humans. Thus the remnants of mankind have taken to living in the clouds. But when a surface drone repairman named Jak discovers a mysterious woman in a crashed pod he is forced to question everything he has ever known.

Walt Disney has announced that they have acquired the rights to the film adaptation of Oblivion, the upcoming graphic novel being released by Radical Publishing. The title was created by Joseph Kosinski, written by Arvid Nelson, and illustrated by Andrée Wallin.

The deal comes as no big surprise; Kosinski is the director of Disney’s Tron: Legacy, and the existing relationship made plenty of sense for this new project. Along with the acquisition of of the property, Disney will also have Kosinski directing and producing this film for them as well.

Oblivion takes place in the future where radiation has destroyed the Earth’s surface, forcing any remaining human beings to live at high altitudes above the clouds as vicious alien creatures scavenge the wastelands below. When Jak, a surface drone repairman, discovers a woman in a crashed pod, many mysteries and questions begin to arise and cause Jak to wonder about everything he’s ever known.

Click over for more and to find out where you can check out the first chapter of the graphic novel now.

Ryder On The Storm #1
Written By: David Hine
Art By: Wayne Nichols
Cover Art: Francesco “Matt” Mattina
Price: $1.00
Publisher: Radical Publishing
Release date: July 27, 2010

When it comes to comics, I am a huge fan of non-superhero books, I love comics that have normal characters in them. Ryder On The Storm is one of these books that grabbed my attention at the beginning and never let go until the sudden ending.

The book starts off with a woman in a towel walking through a trashed apartment to a telephone with a whining noise in the background. She calls Ryder, a private detective with his own agency, Ryder Investigations. While she is on the phone the panels cut to a shot where we see a lot of blood and then we see a man’s body covered in blood with holes in his head, in his hand’s he’s holding a power drill and there’s pills right by him.

Spider-Man and Evil Dead director Sam Raimi is adding another project to his growing list of things to do.

Once it was revealed that Raimi would no longer be needed for Spider-Man 4, he was able to concentrate on other potential gigs including one based on the popular MMO game World of Warcraft and a new take on The Wizard of Oz called Oz: The Great and Powerful. Now the director is adding one more to the pile, and it will be called Earp: Saints for Sinners.

The movie will be based on the comic book mini series of the same name from Radical Publishing. It tells the story of famed old west lawman Wyatt Earp…only in a way not historically known to us. This version of the story takes place just a short time in the future where the economy has crashed, the world has gone to hell, and we live in something resembling a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Ron Howard and Brian Grazer‘s Imagine Entertainment, as well as Barry Levine and Radical Pictures are joining forces to develop a new movie based on the graphic novel Legends: The Enchanted.

The Radical Publishing comic (read our review here!) is created, written, and drawn by Nick Percival. Legends tells a dark and sometimes gruesome fairy tale story, using many of the familiar characters we’ve known all of our lives. Just to give you an idea, some of these characters you’ll find include Red Riding Hood (known here as simply Red Hood), a dangerous wolf-hunter; Jack, a slayer of giants; a deadly mercenary called Goldilocks; and even two psychic exterminators known as Hansel and Gretel.

The comic is still brand new itself, but the content has clearly made enough of an impact to inspire this new cinematic re-invention. The concept of popular fairly tales given very mature and dark makeovers is so appealing because it opens up great new creative doors. The list of projects like this seems to grow longer each and every day with Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and other projects in development.